


Vacaciones

by a_windsor



Series: Thing!verse [25]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-02 09:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10941342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_windsor/pseuds/a_windsor
Summary: The Robbins-Torres family spends Christmas with the Torres clan. December 2023





	Vacaciones

_Vacaciones_ **\- December 2023**

 

Arizona tips her head back against the cool tile of the hot tub’s edge, enjoying the lovely contrast between the hot, hot water and rapidly cooling night air. She relishes the near silence of the secluded corner of the expansive pool area, afforded privacy by the jungle-like landscaping that gives the hotel its tropical feel. God, she loves this place. There is a small splash as someone enters her sanctuary, and she looks up to see the only person who could make this place any better.

“Hello, gorgeous. You’re missing some Things.”

She admires the way her wife’s red swimsuit clings even tighter as she slides into the water.

“One through Four are with the abuelitos. They’re having a cousin-sleepover in their suite. Mamá and Daddy are giving all the parents a date night.”

“Seriously?” Arizona demands, grinning widely as Callie slowly straddles her lap. “All six of them? Are they crazy?”

“Maybe, but I didn’t stick around long enough for them to change their minds,” Callie grins, tucking a damp curl behind Arizona’s ear and placing a line of kisses up her jaw.

“Are you getting frisky with me in public? At your dad’s hotel?” Arizona beams, fingers slipping underneath the edge of Callie’s bathing suit top to linger low on her belly.

“No one can see. The pool’s practically deserted. And we’ve had one baby or another in our bed for the last three nights.”

“True. Was Teo really okay?”

Callie lets out a frustrated groan but know it’s best to assuage Arizona’s worries about their twenty-month-old.

“Considering no one’s been able to pry him out of his Abuelita’s arms, yes. He’s fine. Spoiled, but fine.”

“So we’re really kid-free for the evening?”

“Yep.”

“Wow. I love your parents.”

“Me too. We’re going to be in tight quarters again once we get to your parents’ for New Year’s, so we should take _full_ advantage of it. Don’t you think?”

“Oh, I agree," Arizona grins. She loves every single one of her children more than life itself, but caring for four tiny humans (that are increasingly becoming four distinct people) twenty-four/seven leaves very little Momma/Mami time. They're using the on-call rooms (and even occasionally their offices) more than they did when they were dating, and those times are frequently interrupted by pages and phone calls.

"So," Callie returns her attention to Arizona's neck, "A little of this, and then some room service, and then a little more of this..."

"And then a full night's sleep."

Callie laughs against her neck. "We're so old."

"No," Arizona corrects, moving to capture Callie's lips. "We're moms."

"Mm. That we are."

 

***

 

Arizona watches Callie excitedly dig into her sinful sundae with a lazy smile on her face. They've already devoured their steak dinners, almost embarrassingly quickly, having worked up quite the appetite. The thought makes her flush happily and pull her soft robe tighter around her. She'd almost forgotten the kind of stamina they were capable of, not having the opportunities lately to test it.

"You look very pleased with yourself."

Arizona grins wider. "Me? Nooo. I was actually just wondering if you love that ice cream more than me."

"It _is_ really good ice cream."

"Mean!"

Callie laughs. "You look and sound just like Lena when you do that." She sets down the ice cream and scoots across the bed to be closer to her wife. She presses her lips to hers and then says sincerely: "I love you."

"Mm, I know. I was just giving you a hard time." Arizona leans forward for a more searching kiss and then pulls away. "Oh! That is good ice cream."

Callie rolls her eyes and snuggles up against Arizona, whose fingers trail against her spine.

“I love it here,” she admits.

“Me, too,” Arizona sighs.

“Oh yeah? Even though it’s ‘flashy’ and ‘ostentatious’ and you don’t want our kids to be ‘spoiled brats’?”

Arizona flushes as Callie quotes back her complaints from the big fight they had after Carlos announced the family’s Christmas plans.

“Well, I still worry about that, but I’m sorry I was such a brat about it. You were right; this is awesome.”

“Awesome,” Callie laughs softly. “Of course.”

“I _am_ sorry. I just don’t want our kids to turn out like Hiltons.”

“Oh you’re so funny. Ha. Yes, because Hilton money is hotel money.”

“It is!”

“So you’re saying Aria and I are Paris and Nicky.”

“What? No!”

“So why are you worried about our kids turning out that way?”

Arizona sighs. “I don’t know.”

“Well, if Teo turns into Paris Hilton, I will personally beat it out of him. With a wet noodle.”

Arizona laughs and presses her cheek to Callie’s head.

“I can’t change the money, Arizona.”

“I know.”

“Or the obnoxious amounts of presents that will be under the Christmas tree in two days. Which will, I want to point out, be totally matched when we get to your parents’.”

“Calliope, I know.”

“And I don’t see why we shouldn’t take advantage of the opportunities we have been blessed with. Besides, it’s not like we’re scraping by at home. We’re both attendings.”

“I know, I know. I’m still just getting used to this.”

Callie laughs. “Asa’s ten. You’ve had awhile.”

“Well, I never expected to marry so well; I’m still in shock.”

Callie grins and pokes her ribs.

“It’s wonderful here. Let’s never leave,” Arizona adds with a sigh.

“Okay, but then our kids really will be spoiled.”

Arizona giggles and considers the watch still at her wrist, the larger face set to local time, the smaller back on Seattle time.

“What are you doing?” Callie questions.

“Calculating the sex-to-sleep ratio for the rest of the night.”

Callie rolls her eyes and then rolls onto her wife.

“Dr. Robbins, you’re so romantic...”

 

***

 

They meet for a big 11 a.m. brunch the next day at one of the resort’s outdoor cafés, as has been their routine for the last four days. Carlos, Rosario, and their six grandchildren occupy the longest table, and staff flits about making sure that the big boss and his little princes and princesses are well taken care of.

Teo is cuddled in Rosario’s lap, and Carlos talks animatedly with eight-year-old Lena and Maggie, Lena’s little friend who attached herself to their little charmer some time in the group’s initial exploration of the hotel’s vast pool system.

Asa sits with smitten little Julia; the six-year-old tags along with her cousin everywhere, thoroughly enamored. Luckily, with two little sisters, the ten-year-old is used to it, and only chafes a little under her attention.

Caroline and Lucas, four and three respectively, are on Carlos’s other side, ravenously attacking their sinfully large stacks of pancakes.

All of the children (and grandparents) look fresh from the pool or surf, bathing suits topped with cover-ups and t-shirts with just a few damp spots. Fair little Lena sports the adorably oversized sun hat that her grandmother won’t let her out of the room without and the sunglasses Rosario also insists will protect her delicate “ojos claritos” [light eyes].

"Ma! Mi!" Teo spots them first, giving them his bright smile and tugging on his abuela's arm to alert her to their presence.

"Good _morning_ , Tiny Dancer," Arizona gushes, scooping him out of Rosario's arms as soon as she gets close enough.

He giggles as she swoops him up over her head before settling him on her hip, where his arms immediately encircle her neck.

"Were you a good boy last night? Did you have good sleeps?"

"He snored, Momma," Caroline complains around her mouthful of pancakes. "And LuLu kicked."

"No, no!" Lucas objects. "No lo hithe." [I didn’t do it.]

His three-year-old lisp gives him almost a Castillian accent, which sounds just the littlest bit silly on the blue-eyed half-Cuban, half-Scottish boy.

"Did you have a good date, Mami?" Lena asks on the other side of the table as Callie greets the older two. Lena tilts her head back, flipping the brim back on her floppy hat.

"Sí, Lena-nena, Y ¿cómo te fue la noche?" [Yes, Lena-baby. And how was your night?]

"Bien. Julia and Asa and me watched a movie after the babies went to bed. This morning we went down to the pool."

"I noticed. You're a little soaked."

"Sí."

“Good morning, Maggie,” Callie says with a grin to Lena’s little hanger-on.

“Hi,” the girl says shyly.

Callie and Arizona take their seats, and Teo scrambles into Callie’s lap, immediately reaching to plant a wet kiss on her cheek.

“Why thank you, Mateo.”

 

***

 

“Watch out, Teo! I’m gonna bury your piggies!” Arizona announces dramatically, slowly dumping a bucketful of beautiful white sand onto the baby’s feet as he belly laughs. She is so happy he has outgrown his brief ‘forever crying’ phase and is back to being the super sweet baby he’s always been.

She and Mateo are on the beach, sitting in the sand, while the rest of their family is back at the pool. As much as she would like to be sitting side-by-side with her beautiful wife, sipping fruity drinks and appreciating all that warm, tanned, exposed skin, they’ve had to go the divide-and-conquer route to keep all four entertained. With one mom on the beach and the other poolside, Asa and Lena are free to run back and forth as they see fit, as long as they check in once and a while.

“Should we build a castle, bubba?”

“Yeah!” he exclaims, ineffectively scraping at the sand with his little shovel.

“Yes, _ma’am_ , Teo,” Asa corrects helpfully, plopping into the sand beside them, Lena close behind him.

“He’ll get the hang of it,” Arizona assures her eldest, scruffing his hair, spiking with water.

“Where’s your Mami?”

“Caroline wants to stay at the pool with Julia and Lucas. So Mami and Tía Aria are staying there,” Asa answers.

“So you two wanted to come play with me and Mr. T?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lena speaks up, immediately picking up the large shovel they left at their beach chairs earlier. “Can we bury hermanito?”

Arizona looks alarmed, and Asa immediately grabs his baby brother up off the sand as the little one gives an excited:

“Ay-sa!”

“Leni, he’s too little to bury. He’d be scared,” Asa reprimands, juggling him in his arms and then setting him down, where the baby’s legs wobble and he collapses with a giggle. Teo is an excellent walker, but the uneven terrain is his downfall.

“Levántate, Teo,” [Get up, Teo,] eight-year-old Lena laughs, moving to help him stand, holding onto his hands to help give him some balance. “Well, can we bury you then, Asa?”

“No,” the ten-year-old says quickly.

Lena turns her dangerously wide eyes and hopeful smile to her mother.

“Momma?”

Asa’s eyes light with the idea, too, and he grabs another shovel.

“Yeah, Momma, can we? Please?”

“Oh, guys, I don’t know...”

“Teo, don’t you want to help us bury Momma?” Lena asks the little boy at her feet leadingly, the upward lilt in her voice immediately producing an exuberant nod, made more comical by the baseball cap that bobs on his head.

“Yes, pease,” he says as politely as possible.

Arizona looks at all their earnest faces and wishes she were stronger.

“Okay. But let’s put Tiny Dancer over in the chair so he doesn’t get sand in his eyes.”

As the older two laugh (almost evilly) and being work on a hole big enough for Momma, Arizona plops Teo on the chair.

“Stay here, little man, okay? You’re in charge. You have to supervise and drink your juice.”

Arizona then resigns herself to her sandy fate.

Lena, in her purple two-piece, little belly already covered in sand, has the foresight to shape a nice sand pillow for their mother, while Asa does the heavy duty shoveling to create a trench.

She lays down at the older two make sure she's settled while Teo giggles from his supervisory perch.

"Avoid the face," Arizona orders as they gleefully start their burial.

Teo's watching doesn't last long, so Asa and Lena finish their project while wrangling the baby.

"Should we make her a mermaid, Mateíto?" Asa asks once the grunt work of burying their momma is complete, hands on his hips, surveying their handiwork.

Teo looks up from the job he was assigned (endlessly shoveling sand onto Arizona's feet) and just nods along with whatever his big brother has suggested. Asa looks to Lena, who shrugs and assents.

Then the sculpting begins with even more laughter around, and Arizona can't help but join in, despite the itchy sand, burning sun, and slight claustrophobia. Lena sees her squinting against the sun and removes her comical hat (after first doing a quick scan for her abuelita) to place it atop her mom's head. Arizona's own baseball cap sits abandoned on the lounge chair, but when she tells Lena this, the girl is unimpressed, much more interested in how goofy Arizona looks as is.

By the time they're done, everyone (sculptor and medium alike) is covered head to toe in sand. Arizona breaks free with appropriate monster noises that alternately startle and amuse Tiny Dancer.

"Last one into the water is a rotten egg!" Asa declares.

Lena scoops up Teo and makes a dash for the water.

"Oh no, Teo! We don't wanna be stinky."

 

***

Her suit is clammy and cold, and she shivers in the cool evening breeze, even if her Momma says no one can ever be cold in Cuba. She snuggles in close to her mami's breast, and despite the discomfort of wet bathing suit and sandy skin against her, Callie holds her tighter, loving the content sigh that escapes little Caroline's lips.

"¿Tienes sueño, mi amor?" [Are you sleepy, my love?]

Caroline nods, rubbing her cheek against her madre's suit. "Sí, mi Mami." [Yes, my Mami.]

"You can take a little siesta if you want. We'll go up and shower soon."

The four-year-old turns her face up briefly and presses a quick kiss to her madre's lips.

"'Kay."

She snuggles back in. Callie smiles widely. A freely given display of affection from Care Bear is a rare gift indeed.

Worn out by the sun and surf, Caroline falls almost immediately into a solid, snoring sleep.

"Oh my goodness, what do you have there?" Arizona asks, moving into Callie's sunlight, a complacent Teo on her hip, Mariners cap on his head and sandy feet brushing her thighs.

"Shh, sleeping baby," Callie admonishes. "Hola, m'ijo. ¿Cómo te fue la playa?" [Hey, baby. How was the beach?]

Teo pouts.

"He got swamped by a wave while we were jumping and washing off from our sand adventures, so he and the beach are not on speaking terms. That's why we are back here at the pool."

"Oh, pobrecito. What a mean wave." [Oh, poor baby.]

Teo nods solemnly, fingers tangled in the strap of Arizona's blue suit.

"And One and Two?" Arizona asks.

" _Asa and Lena_ ," Callie corrects with an eye roll, "Are on the water slide with Uncle Blake."

Arizona grins before dropping a kiss on Teo's salty forehead.

“Fun!”

“I think Lena’s _girlfriend_ was with them.”

Arizona rolls her eyes. “Stop that. She’s outgoing. Okay, I'm gonna take him up and shower him. Maybe get him to curl up with a movie and veg before dinner. Is that okay? Want me to take Caroline too?"

"And give up my Care Bear snuggles? No way!"

Arizona matches her soft smile and leans forward to kiss each of them.

"We'll be up soon," Callie promises. "Just waiting on Leni and Ace."

"Mmkay. Leave some Caroline cuddles for me, okay? Don't use up her weekly allotment."

"Got it."

Arizona and Teo wander off, the little one perking up just enough to swap his hat for his momma's. His tiny cap perches precariously on her head, hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. Her hat, declaring loyalty to the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, tilts, comically loose, atop his noggin. Arizona spins them around, back to facing the fortification of lounge chairs Callie guards, arms wide as if to ask: "What do you think?"

Callie shakes her head with a soft laugh, but uses her free arm to give them the thumbs up of approval. Lena runs up to Arizona and Teo as they approach the edge of the pool deck, and Arizona turns again with a "I now have custody of Thing Two" gesture. It amazes Callie how much of their conversations are done with body language these days.

Arizona's miniature wraps her arms around her momma's waist and then nuzzles at her brother's sandy knee, which makes him giggle sleepily.

"Hey, Mami," Asa sneaks up while she's watching half their family head back to the suite.

"Hey, m'ijo. Having fun?"

“Yep. But I’m hungry. Can I have a snack?”

“We’re going to dinner soon, so... nope. Gotta save room.”

Asa makes a face but accepts that, sitting on the chair next to her.

“Is Care Bear sleeping?”

“She is. She’s worn out!”

Asa nods, leaning back against the lounge chair himself, hands folded over his flat little boy stomach, eyes squinting against the sun sinking against the horizon.

“Are we going to one of the restaurants tonight?”

“We are. For Christmas Adam.”

Asa grins. “That’s what Momma calls it.”

“I know. She’s strange.”

“Yeah, well, I like her.”

Callie laughs, loving Asa’s evolving sense of humor. She hates to see him grow up, but she loves the person he is becoming.

“Mami?”

“Yeah, m’ijo?”

“Did they really put gay people in prison here?”

Callie takes in a deep breath, startled by the question. Caroline snores on against her chest.

“Who told you that?”

Asa shrugs.

“They did. For a long time after the Revolution, sí.”

“And they beat ‘em up?”

Arizona would tell her honesty is the best policy, so she presses on.

“Yes.”

“And sometimes killed them.”

“Sí, mi amor, pero...” [Yes, my love, but…]

“Chuy me dijo que es mejor now, pero some people todavía no le gusta.” [Chuy told me that it’s better now, but some people still don’t like it.]

“Asa, I think that’s true everywhere. Did you talk to Chuy about it?”

“One of waiters said somethin’ about you and Momma last night, and Chuy got mad and yelled and put him on dish duty.”

Chuy, the manager of this particular Torres hotel and their liaison for this week, is a mid-fifties flaming stereotype himself and has formed a particular liking for the Robbins-Torres branch of the Torres family.

“Siempre alguien va a decir algo,” [Someone is always going to say something,] Callie says softly.

“I know. I was just wonderin’. Abuelito fired the waiter; said all people and su dinero were welcome aquí y nadie who insulted the guests podría trabajar here.” [Abuelito fired the waiter; said all people and their money were welcome here, and no one who insulted the guests could work here.]

Callie wonders how exactly she missed all of this.

“He did?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, okay. Wanna talk about it?”

Asa shrugs, eyes closed as he soaks up the warm rays. “Not right now.”

“Okay. If you want...”

“Yes, ma’am.”

 

***

 

Callie watches as Asa’s stubby fingers fumble with the buttons of the short-sleeved linen shirt. With that and the additions of his usual buzz cut grown out just a little and wet from the shower and his usually tan skin even darker from days of sunny play, he looks so much like every other little _macho cubano_ running around the island, and every little boy she played with growing up.

“¿Qué haces, Mami?” he asks, just the littlest bit annoyed. [What are you doing, Mami?]

“Lookin’ at you.”

“Y, ¿por qué?” he grins, the worries of earlier completely gone from him. [Why?]

“Pues, eres muy guapo.” [Well, you’re very handsome.]

“Must be genetic.”

“Why thank you.”

“I was talking about Abuelito,” Asa smiles cheekily.

Callie bumps him with her hip and turns to the newly arrived Lena:

“Qué linda, mi amor.” [How pretty, my love.]

Lena grins, spinning in her flowing, light blue sundress, her wild blonde curls tamed into twin braids by her mother’s expert hands.

“Gracias, Mami. Me gusta tu vestido. El rojo es muy beautiful.” [Thanks, Mami. I like your dress. The red is very beautiful.]

“Such a charmer,” Callie teases, leaning down to kiss Lena’s round little cheek, wiping off the lipstick left behind while the little one smiles widely.

“Mami, estoy lista!” [Mami, I’m ready.] Caroline announces, running out of the bedroom in her sundress and sandals, long, straight hair loose around her shoulders and freshly brushed. It’s a miracle Arizona managed that; Care Bear rarely sits still to have her hair brushed out.

“And you look very pretty tonight, too.”

“Thank you,” Caroline says with a nod, as if she is well aware of that.

“Where’s your Momma?”

Caroline hooks a thumb over her shoulder into her parents’ bedroom. Callie wanders back in search of her wife.

“Hey, baby? We’ve gotta head out if we’re gonna...”

Callie is first distracted by her wife bent over in some delicious black pants, but then further taken off her purpose by the scene laid out in front of her.

“Mateo?”

“Sí, Mi?”

“Where are your pants, m’ijo?”

“No,” the almost-two-year-old says distinctly, his hands on his hips, fully dressed in a soft pink cotton polo shirt from the waist up, nothing but a Disney Princess diaper from the waist down. (He’d asked for them specifically while on a grocery store run, and neither mother could say no to that cuteness.)

“No?” Callie asks.

“No,” Teo confirms, shoving his pacifier into his mouth.

“He has made a stand against pants,” Arizona sighs, rising all the way up. Callie presses a quick peck to her lips and shoos her into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

“Mateo, why no pants?” Callie asks, squatting to his level.

No response, just further pouting.

“Teo, you have to wear pants. We can’t go to the restaurant in a diaper. Aren’t you hungry?”

“Sí,” he mumbles around the binky.

“Okay. So to eat, you need pants.”

“No!” In his ire, the binky falls, but he manages to catch it.

“Mateo, don’t yell at Mami. It’s not nice.”

Teo’s face gets more obstinate, but he wisely doesn’t yell again, reinserting the pacifier.

“We’re going to go see Abuelita and Tía Aria and Lucas. They’re all going to have pants on, so we do too. Okay?”

The boy nods slowly.

“Now, can you put your shorts on for me so we can go see everyone?”

Teo nods again, setting one hand on her shoulder so he doesn’t have to suffer the indignity of lying down to get dressed. Callie finally wrestles him into the little khaki shorts.

“There. So handsome,” she praises, kissing his binky and then popping it out to kiss his actual lips. “Anda a buscar a Asa, okay?” [Go find Asa, okay?]

Teo gives her a half hug and then toddles off to find his big brother. Callie stands with a groan, headed into the bathroom.

“Sorry about that,” Arizona says as she puts on the finishing touches of her make-up.

“About what? Mateo being a sudden half-nudist? I don’t think that’s your fault.” She drops a kiss onto Arizona’s shoulder and then, as she had minutes earlier with Lena, rubs the lipstick mark of the pale skin dotted with freckles from the sun.

“Maybe he just wanted to show everyone the princesses?” Arizona says helpfully.

Callie grins. “Oh god, my father’s face if Teo showed the whole restaurant his princess diapers?”

“It would be pretty classic, but I’m glad you managed to get him dressed.”

“Me too.” Callie kisses her neck. “You look really hot. What’s the chance of our bed being baby-free tonight?”

“Mm, slim to none, but we can always pray.”

Arizona moves to kiss her wife, just as Lena cries:

“Momma! Mami! Abuelito says it’s time to go.”

Callie completes the kiss anyway with a cheeky grin.

“We gotta pray harder.”

 

***

At dinner, Callie is seated next to her father, and most of the dinner conversation is inane and comfortable. She loves being able to spend this time with her family, as stressful as it can sometimes be. Asa is down at one end of the table with Julia and Blake, engaging in some sort of animated conversation with his cousin and her father.

"Me hace feliz que Asa tiene qué buena relación con Blake. Necesita..." [I’m happy that Asa has such a good relationship with Blake. He needs...]

"¿Un padre?" [A father?] Callie asks, annoyed. Her dad has made leaps and bounds in his views on homosexuality, and he adores Arizona and worships their children.  But he still has some old-fashioned beliefs, and his current obsession with the development of Asa's masculinity is grating.

"Good male influence and attention," Carlos corrects, catching her tone and matching it. "Nothing else. I am just glad that all of our family gets along very well."

"Immediate family, at least," Callie comments.

Carlos concedes to the reticence of the extended family with a nod.

A wandering Lena interrupts their conversation.

"Ah, mi alma," the abuelo beams, pulling her into his lap. [Ah, my soul.]

"Hi."

"Hello! ¿Cómo te gusta la isla de tu familia?" [How do you like the island of your family?]

"Me gusta a lot." [I like it a lot.]

Carlos grins. He speaks Spanish and English fluently, but rarely mixes them like his grandchildren.

"Well, I have a little hotel business to attend to. Would you like to join me, mi alma?"

Callie narrows her eyes, well aware of her father's secret intentions to turn little Lena into his successor. He also can show a bit of favoritism to the blonde, which she has warned him about.

"We'll ask Asa and Julia as well," he adds at his daughter's raised eyebrow. "The others are too young, I think."

Callie nods, and then Lena looks to her mother for permission.

"That sounds fun. Go ask Ace and Julia."

Julia declines, but Asa agrees, and soon after, the diners disperse with promises from Carlos to return the older children by bedtime. Callie pries Teo from his abuela's grasp and onto her hip. Arizona and Caroline follow behind, the four-year-old's hand firmly in her mom's as she sings mash-ups of Disney songs under breath. Arizona laughs as she catches a verse and jumps into the chorus:

" _It's the circle of life,_ " they sing together, Caroline delighted that her mother joined in.

"How did we pick those goofs, Teo?"

"Ma?" the twenty-month-old questions, cocking his head.

"Yeah, I guess you didn't do any picking. Just me. Sorry about that. I do kinda love them, though."

"Son goofs," he nods solemnly. [They are goofs.]

Callie rewards his little Spanglish sentence with a beaming smile and a sound, smacking kiss on his cheek. He laughs and shakes his head at the attention. With three older siblings able and willing to speak for him, Teo's speech has come a little more slowly than his siblings, but it's been increasing exponentially in the last few weeks.   

Caroline and Arizona hit the swelling last chorus of the _Lion King_ song, and Arizona picks Thing Three up to spin her about dramatically.

Callie sighs but the look she gives Arizona is nothing short of adoring.

Each with a baby in arms (though Cari would object to the label), Callie leans in to kiss Arizona warmly, just toe-ing the line of chaste. They actually get a rather significant amount of kissing in before Teo wiggles and Caroline sighs.

"C'mon," she complains. “Stop kissin’.”

Her moms laugh, oblivious to the varying looks they receive from fellow patrons passing in the hall. The response to how open they are with their relationship gets a mix of reactions within the resort, but they learned long ago to never hide their family from the outside world.

“I will _not_ stop kissing your madre,” Arizona insists, giving Caroline a good bounce.

“Not forever,” Caroline “duhs”. “Just _right now_.”

“Okay. That I can agree to.”

 

***

 

“Can I really stay up past midnight?” Lena asks, eyes wide.

She’s still in her pretty dress from Christmas Eve mass, but she’s oblivious to ruining it in the sand, and Callie kinda likes it that way.

“Yes, Lena-nena. You’ve done this before in Miami, m’ija.”

“And they’re gonna set off fireworks?”

“Yes.”

“Cool!”

“Yes, cool.”

“I’m gonna go see if Maggie gets to stay up, too,” Lena announces, taking off across the sand.

“Okay, but it’s dark, Lena! No swimming!”

“Yes, ma’am,” the girl calls over her shoulder.

Callie grins, trying to put eyes on the rest of her family, enjoying a good Cuban Christmas Eve by torch and bonfire on the resort’s beach.

Asa, Carlos, and Blake sit with a large group for some traditional dominoes, Asa loving the attention and translating quickly for Blake, while Aria and her kids camp out at one of the tables, sampling the _lechón_. Lucas especially seems enamored of the roast pig. Rosario sings to Teo at the waters’ edge while they watch the stars, the surf, and the lights of boats winking in the distance.

That just leaves Thing Three and her Momma, who Callie hopes are together.

“Ooh. Look what I got,” Arizona says softly, arriving beside her, Caroline on her hip. The firelight plays in her loose blonde waves, and she smiles widely at the little girl in her arms. “A Caroline for me, and a piña colada for Mami.”

“I had a piña colada too,” Caroline informs.

“Virgin,” Arizona mouths as Callie nods.

“Mami, will we still have a Christmas tree tomorrow?”

“Yes, claro.” [Yes, of course.]

“But if we’re up late, when will Santa come?”

“As soon as we go to bed. Ya sabe cuándo dormimos.” [He knows when we sleep.]

“Cari! ¡Ven aquí!” Julia calls from her table, and Caroline wiggles to comply. [Come here!]

“And just like that, my Care Bear snuggles are over,” Arizona sighs as she sets the preschooler down.

“I’ll snuggle you instead,” Callie offers.

“You always snuggle me,” Arizona dismisses, eyes sparkling.

“You are so mean to me.”

“I am not! I brought you booze!”

Callie grins. “Oh, okay. Well...”

Arizona nudges her over, and they cuddle a bit on the lounge chair.

“Feliz Navidad,” Arizona says gently. [Merry Christmas.]

“Feliz Nochebuena,” Callie corrects. [Merry Christmas Eve.]

“Oh right. That too."

Callie presses a kiss into Arizona's hair, and they sit in content silence.

Until Callie groans: “I hate you.”

“What? Why?”

“Now I have that stupid song in my head.”

Arizona looks perplexed for a bit, then seems to catch on, wide, lazy smile spreading across her face. She starts to hum the tune, earning a playful shove from her wife.

“Stop it. That song is so dumb. There are a million other Christmas songs; we didn’t need that song.”

“ _I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas. I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas. I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas, from the bottom of my heart._ ”

“Why did I marry you?”

“Cause I knocked you up. Twice.” She holds up a pair of fingers, as if to underline the number.

“Right.”

“Mm, I love it here, but is it weird that I’m kinda excited that we get this and snowball fights and hot chocolate and-”

“Chestnuts roasting on the open fire?”

“Right. We get all your traditions, and all of my traditions. I like that. I like the balance.”

“And I know how well you can _balance_.”

“Calliope, not in front of the babies!”

“I don’t see any babies,” Callie grins into her shoulder.

“Oh, well then, please, do continue.”

Callie laughs and holds her tighter, perfectly content to be surrounded by the smells and sounds of her childhood (and the sights are pretty similar, even if ninety miles south), her wife wrapped in her arms, her children running around the beach forming memories just like her own.

“ _Feliz Navidad_.”

“I will kill you, hide the body, and tell the children the sharks got you.”

“Well Merry Nochebuena to you, too!”

 

***

el fin


End file.
